Integrating Art with classroom curriculum

I've been collaborating with the third-grade teachers to integrate art into a unit of study about identity and the science behind skin color. In art, third graders are making self-portraits and later this month, they'll be mixing paint colors that match the tone of their skin. So far, we've created drawings that focus on proportion and proper placement of facial features. They're pretty spectacular!

Drawing from Observation with Fourth and Fifth Grade

We started off October with some drawings from observation. Students chose from a variety of plants that I brought to school, and worked on looking closely and making contour line drawings of leaves and flowers in their sketchbooks. I love drawing from nature because it is very forgiving. No one will know if you don't draw a leaf exactly the way it looks! We may go back and use some watercolor techniques to paint these drawings at a later date.

Many Parts to Make a Whole

This week in art class, students are working on a "pizza wedge" of artwork that will become part of a larger circle. Older grades are using lines and shapes to create zentangle-ish patterns and younger students are adding lines designs using oil pastels. Next week, we'll paint them and assemble our circles. I can't wait to see the results! To be continued...

The finished products: These beautiful wheels now fill our hallways!

Task Party

Welcome to our new school year in the art room! 

On the first day of school, we had a special art-making party called a Task Party. Artist Oliver Herring began the idea of a task party. It is a way to get people thinking creatively about how to solve a problem using random materials to complete a task.

Basically, it's a fun, collaborative way to think outside the box.
Students chose a task from our task bowl, brought it back to their table group, and either worked independently or as a group to complete the task using random materials that I provided.
Here were some of the tasks:

Make a piece of fruit.

Build a city

Build a Flower

The solutions that students created for these tasks are really unique. 

Ready, Set, Here we go!

I'm looking forward to another fun and creative year at J.J. Flynn! I'll be busy getting our room ready for our creative endeavors this week. Stay tuned...